My house is filled with Minecraft and Loom bands! I thought that Minecraft might be a flash in the pan, however, it hasn’t proven to be. Both the boys and their friends love it. So I extracted my boys and their friends away from the screen for a while and together we have made this Mum’s Guide to Minecraft.
What is minecraft?
It is an online sensation game designed by Notch (a.k.a. Markus Persson) founder of Mojang, the company that developed Minecraft.
The game is available on a variety of platforms (iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC although my boys play it on Xbox 360).
To put it very simply minecraft is like LEGO online, but without any blocks to get under your feet!
In Minecraft you play Steve and you build your world out of blocks. Steve’s world can be a dangerous place, especially at night. That’s when the baddies come out. But, he also can encounter them at anytime underground. Animals roam the land, some friendly. Some can be tamed or even ridden. Neighboring villagers keep to themselves but are willing to make trades.
To survive, you must build yourself a shelter and begin to gather food. Everything around you can become a resource. Hacking at trees gets you wood, digging up the ground gets you stone, etc. Gathering plants or killing animals will give you food and other resources.
You can then use those resources to make building materials. With time and some effort, you can also craft objects by combining resources in a furnace or at a craft table. There are lot of recipes for making weapons, armor, food, etc. My boys use this Crafting Guide.
The Different Modes of Play in Minecraft
- Creative Mode – In this mode, you can create your world, explore and enjoy building without the threat of zombies arriving. A player doesn’t need to be concerned about survival, finding food or building shelter.
- Survival Mode – this is the game mode in Minecraft (where most players play, including the boys and their friends). The focus is survival and the player needs to build shelter, find food, fight enemies and collect resources that will help them survive long term. This mode can be played as a single or multi-player.
- Hardcore Mode – Similar to Survival mode, but more difficult. The main difference is that you have only one life, and your entire world will be deleted when you die.
- Adventure Mode – This also adds a layer of difficulty to Survival mode. The main difference is that you cannot break blocks unless you have the right tool.
Glossary of Minecraft terms for the Savvy Mum
Mods – They are things that change the game, add ons that change elements or add new elements to a minecraft world.
Skins – it changes the way things look
Mob – Can be hostile, docile, neutral or allied. Hostile mobs are in very simple terms a baddie such as a creeper, zombie, skeleton, spider, Enderman and wither skelton.
The Ender Dragon – The hardest Mob and you have to destroy it at the End past the Nether
The Nether – is a world that has blazes, zombie pigmen, glowstone fire and the ender temple.
The End – a planet that you can dig through and it is the other way you can die on creative mode.
Butter – is gold and you make things with it
Emerald – is the hardest thing to mine, you make things with it.
Minecraft goes offline
The Minecraft action figures as they were left on my fireplace!
The boys were sent Diamond Steve Action Figure (£7.99) and Minecraft Core Animal Mob
At £7.99 and £19.99 it bring them in to pocket money saving range and also the perfect price for birthday gifts.
Diamond Steve is 7cm tall and fully articulated. He comes with diamond armour and a sword. Now for the minecraft speak Diamond armour is the most durable with an 8.33 defence point per diamond and can be repaired.
Now for the animals, I love the animals. Again they are fully articulated and you get a Cow, Chicken, Pig, Sheep, Tamed Wolf, Ocelot. For ages 6 years and over.
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